UNION OF CLUBS AND SOCIETIES
MICHAEL BURTON
PAGE 45
As the Union Secretary, it is my role to support Mr Brown in running the Union. The Union currently features over 80 clubs and societies, from which fellow Alleynians and I have been able to enjoy a fantastic array of talks, trips, and events. Supporting the Union has been one of the highlights of my time at Dulwich College and I look forward to contributing as an OA.
A CAREER ABOVE THE CLOUDS Michael Burton (70-78) is an astronomer and Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Northern Ireland. Armagh hosts both the UK’s longest continuously running observatory as well as its oldest planetarium. While the latter dates from 1968, the former stretches back to 1790 and the Age of the Enlightenment. Armagh’s Troughton Equatorial, installed five years later, is the oldest telescope in the world still in its original setting in one of the earliest astronomical domes ever built. Michael has been Director of Armagh for nine years, after an astronomical career that has spanned the world. While he may now be custodian of some remarkable scientific heritage, for most of his career he has been exploring the galaxy, examining the cold, dark molecular gas from which stars are born, using telescopes sited on remote desert mountain tops and even in Antarctica. Michael grew up in the outback of Australia under the splendours of the southern skies, but it was at Dulwich College that his passion for astronomy was ignited, under former Master Barry Evans. Why, Michael still has his project book from his first year at the College, full of his investigations into the stars and the planets and the geological eras of the Earth! His year out between Dulwich Upper School and starting university was spent at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, then in Herstmonceux in Sussex, working with an early computer in the control room for what was then Britain’s largest telescope – the Isaac Newton. While his PhD was nominally spent at Edinburgh’s Royal Observatory, its formative phase was many months in Hawaii using the UKIRT, a 4m diameter infrared telescope sited on top of a 4,000m volcano. Here he was above the clouds, in some of the driest air in the world, ideal for measuring the faint heat radiation arising from the molecular gas around baby stars in our galaxy. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at NASA’s Ames laboratory near San Francisco in California, with many nights spent flying in the Kuiper Airborne Observatory high in the stratosphere, above the clouds and virtually all the water vapour that can absorb infrared radiation and stop it from reaching telescopes on the ground, even those sited on high mountain tops. California was followed by Australia, firstly as a staff astronomer with the Anglo Australian Telescope, then an academic appointment at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, where the bulk of Michael’s career has been spent. Australia proved to be a gateway to Antarctica, and the high Antarctic plateau, the driest location on the surface of the Earth and the clearest skies. He spent two decades working on projects aimed at bringing astronomy to this most extreme location on our planet. And when not working in Antarctica, and able to escape from teaching first- year undergraduates basic physics or writing grant proposals, he often found himself in the high Atacama desert of Chile, or running the Mopra radio telescope in Coonabarabran in western New South Wales, searching for signatures emitted from exotic molecules in our galaxy telling us about how stars form. As Michael’s career enters its final stages it has turned full circle, back towards its origins in those early astronomical adventures in the UK’s oldest observatory to now running its longest operating observatory at Armagh and taking visitors on immersive tours of the cosmos in its wonderful digital planetarium – find out more by visiting www.armagh.space
Art Society has had an incredible year, filled with fantastic talks from students, OAs and external speakers. This year, we were honoured to host Will Brooke, who came to us from Escape Studios to introduce the world of visual effects, and the photographer Ed Brilliant, who delved into much of his own work and its inspiration. What makes Art Society different from other societies is the vast variety of topics and ideas explored; throughout the year we have had both talks and practical sessions where we can expand our skills and our understanding of different topics. Art society runs at Friday lunchtime in S5 and would not be possible without the wonderful Ms Mackie, whose devotion to the society is inspirational. All years are welcome to come and share in the discussion, and we hope that next year will be even better than this one.
The Remote-Control Society meets every Friday at lunchtime in the Design Technology workshops, where we channel our passion for all things remote- controlled. While as a society we mainly focus on flight, we also delve into cars, boats, and tanks – and occasionally even fuse them, albeit with mixed results. Our most memorable event would be our first flight day, during which we flew a 3D-printed plane constructed completely in-house. This first flight was a soaring success and really set the stage for innovation and creativity. Subsequent projects have included a car- plane hybrid as one of the more innovative models. Running this society wouldn’t be possible without the continued support from the College – from Mr Brown helping me set up and apply for funding for the society, to Mr Vaughan who has made so many of our projects possible, and of course the Friends who facilitated our obtaining parts for our projects.
The college's Model UN Society welcomes all students interested in public speaking, international relations, global politics, current affairs, and more, from Middle to Upper School alike. Meeting irregularly for conferences, members enjoy fruitful discussions with delegates from schools nationwide and beyond on topics ranging from climate change to nuclear non-proliferation, producing and voting on resolutions and amendments to bring about peace and positive change. Hosting our first-ever conference in November, delegations from JAGS, Alleyns, and visiting Ukrainian students were among those who participated. A two-day conference at Wycombe Abbey – made possible by Mr Mackintosh and Ms Kim – saw our delegation participating in a diplomatic ball with Scottish dancing, creating lasting friendships and memories, while bringing back an award for best delegation amongst other personal best delegate and highly commended awards, marking it our second-best delegation win this year.
Samuel Betancourt Cortes Y13
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